How good is your child's preschool? A new test aims to give Floridians a better answer

By Colleen Wright Tampa Bay Times

Saturday

Sep 9, 2017 at 3:31 PMSep 9, 2017 at 3:31 PM

Schools across the state are administering a new, more accurate test to thousands of 5-year-olds as they settle into their kindergarten classrooms this year.

How good is your child's preschool? Does it prepare children for kindergarten like it should? Should it continue to receive state money?

Since 2014, it's been harder for parents and the public to tell, thanks to flaws in a state test, begun that year, that was supposed to measure the performance of schools that get money under the state's Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program, known as VPK.

State officials say they suspended the test because of "technological issues," leaving Florida without an accurate measure of kindergarten readiness.

But that is changing as schools across the state begin administering a new, more accurate test to thousands of 5-year-olds as they settle into their kindergarten classrooms this year.

As with the previous test, the STAR Early Literacy test is designed to assess whether each kindergarten student possesses the skills he or she will need in the coming year — for example, how well they recognize sounds, letters and numbers.

The results also are used to determine whether the prekindergarten programs those students attended should continue to receive state VPK funds.

Under Florida law, all kindergarten students must be screened within the first 30 days of school. The 20-minute, online assessment can be completed on a laptop or tablet.

The situation has left the future of some prekindergarten programs in doubt because the test that was in place before 2014 is still considered valid and will be included in each school's track record. The pre-2014 results will likely be paired with those from this month's testing.

Programs that did well under that old test won't have a problem, but those that had low success rates could lose state funding.

Those in the latter group "have essentially been put on hold," said Rodney MacKinnon, executive director of the Office of Early Learning, which oversees early learning and school readiness in districts throughout Florida.

"It's not just like it has been the wild west for the past four years," he said. "There have been standards in place, we've just been unable to implement this particular part of the program."

Under the previous test, three consecutive years of kindergarten readiness rates below 70 percent meant a five-year penalty of no state funding. The State Board of Education is expected to revisit those benchmarks this fall.

The data from the new tests won't be compiled and ready for public view until this spring, and will count retroactively for the VPK programs' 2016-17 school year.

Much of that data will be collected and reviewed by early learning coalitions that oversee VPK providers in designated counties.

The Early Learning Coalition of Pinellas holds training for preschool teachers geared toward the standards covered in the kindergarten readiness tests, said Executive Director Lindsay Carson. The training also touches on how teachers can respond to behavior problems, be aware of their students' social and emotional development, and help introduce STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects.

She said the coalition works with preschools with low scores to develop ways to help at-risk kids who are already behind. For many students, especially those in high-needs areas, Carson said VPK may be their first brush with education and literacy.

"The school district experiences some of the same challenges that our private providers do," she said.

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